The present invention relates to a new and improved method of, and apparatus for, semi-horizontal continuous casting of metals, especially although not exclusively, steels and steel alloys.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,309, granted Oct. 14, 1969 it is known to teem steel into a vertical refractory part of an oscillating mold having the shape of an inverted T, and to withdraw from two horizontal mold parts, merging with the vertical mold part, two partially solidified strands in opposite essentially horizontal directions. Apart from other drawbacks, such as for instance poor visual access into the interior of the casting mold, the large masses which must be oscillated, the sealing problems arising between the individual mold parts and so forth, with this state-of-the-art construction of continuous casting mold large quantities of metal flow out from the not yet solidified strands in the event of metal break-out. Since the continuously cast strands are horizontally conveyed out of the continuous casting mold at the height of the casting mold the cast steel can not only flow out of the continuous casting mold but also from the strand section located after the metal break-out location in the direction of travel of the continuously cast strand.
According to a further known construction of continuous casting mold as disclosed in Russian Pat. No. 578,155, dated Jan. 13, 1978, the metal to be cast is introduced from above into a hollow mold compartment or cavity of the continuous casting mold through an infeed or inlet opening provided at an upper wall of such continuous casting mold. The mold construction consists of a linear mold portion and a curved mold portion. With this mold design it is intended to achieve the result that there is formed an intentional rupture or fracture location at the transition of the linear mold portion into the curved mold portion, since at that location there is supposed to be situated the weakest, hottest and thinnest location of the strand shell or skin. With this prior art continuous casting arrangement continuously cast strands efflux out of the inclined straight mold portion and the likewise inclined curved mold portion, the longitudinal axes of which form an angle with respect to the horizontal. One of the appreciable drawbacks of this prior art mold construction is that the continuous casting mold cannot be oscillated, since the strand shell formed in any one of the mold portions cannot be displaced into the other mold portion. Consequently, between the mold and the formed strand there prevails much too great friction which is caused by the strand withdrawal operation, and there increasingly occur metal break-outs. This undesirable effect is further intensified by virtue of the fact that the strand must be continuously forcefully separated, even if this is accomplished at a fixed rupture or fracture location.